


And It Was There That I Found My Heart

by howthemoonsuitsthenightsky



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: F/M, Slow Burn, University AU, also dellie is mentioned because she is the cutest and so has to be included, anne is 18, creative writing society au, gilbert is 19, gilbert's dad passing away is mentioned, set in the uk, shirtbert au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:48:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23529439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howthemoonsuitsthenightsky/pseuds/howthemoonsuitsthenightsky
Summary: When Anne moves to university she finds herself surrounded by new friends and immerses herself in university life. On joining the Creative Writing Society she meets someone she can't stop thinking of.*It's Gilbert's second attempt at first year and with that comes meeting new people. The person he's gladdest he's met? Anne Shirley-Cuthbert.
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe & Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Comments: 53
Kudos: 150





	1. New Beginnings

A few months ago, Anne would have considered herself nervous at the prospect of starting university, but walking into her new room for the first time, she instantly knew that this was where she was meant to be. She ran over to the window, delighted at the expanse of grassland she could see through it. Casting her gaze out over a magnificently large lake with short reeds softening the boarders, she vowed she would never succumb to a city life. 

“Are you going to help or not?” Jerry’s voice interrupted her musings and she turned to find him placing the first of her, many, cardboard boxes on her new bed. He let his hands rest on top and raised his eyebrows to her in a way that only he could. Anne only allowed him the pleasure of seeing her roll her eyes in return. “I’ll take that as a yes then,” Jerry sighed as he moved to back out of the room and into the corridor behind him. “If Matthew and Marilla only knew what sort of girl they raised.”

Just as he turned to make his grand exit, the door across the hallway opened and a small girl seemed to try to run directly through him. Anne could only stand in shock as she watched the girl slip, her mouse brown hair flying up as if it were attached to a piece of string. Despite his initial shock, Jerry managed to reach out his arms, still turning, and stop her from falling to the floor. The girl let out a large ‘humph’ as Jerry’s muscular arms grasped onto her elbows, but she made no further protest as he helped her stand. 

From Anne’s perspective, their height difference only made the situation more comical, as though Jerry were a giant who had plucked a child out of thin air. She could see from the girl’s face though that the situation was anything but comical; Anne felt as if she were invading a private moment between the girl’s eyes and Jerry’s face just by standing a few feet away. 

“You’re a boy!” The girl’s exclamation came as a surprise. Realising what she had just said, she cast her eyes to the ground and began to fiddle with the hem of her pink summer dress. “Sorry, I mean, I thought we were in an all girl’s flat.”

Seeing that Jerry still hadn’t recovered from his surprised expression, Anne decided that this was the best moment to step in. “Don’t worry,” she stepped as far as her doorframe, but decided to go no further, “Jerry’s not in this flat, I am.” She paused noticing the confused expression on the girl’s face. “I’m Anne, this is my cousin, Jerry. He’s helping me move in.”

Anne could see the moment the realisation as it came to the girl, her face bloomed and eyebrows raised as if she was into severe over-acting. “Anne, of course!” Suddenly, the girl sprung towards her and Anne felt a pair of delicate, yet surprisingly strong, arms wrap her in a hug. The girl’s face buried deep in her shoulder, Anne could see that Jerry had apparently recovered from his earlier shock and quickly motioned to his cousin that he would go and get more boxes.

A few seconds after his disappearance, the girl released Anne and stepped back. “I’m Ruby.” At that moment, it clicked to Anne who the girl was, but before she could get a word in edgeways, Ruby was back talking again. “I recognise you from the group chat, it’s easy to distinguish you from the others because of the colour of your hair, of course. Mine’s so plain and boring in comparison, and I guess the other girls are too, well, Josie has these wonderful curls, and Tillie’s is so dark and lustrous, but you get what I mean. We’re all just unpacking now, so I’m sure you’ll see what I mean in a bit. You’re the last one here but, oh, I’m just so glad you’re finally here.” 

Anne had assumed her pause was only to catch her breath before starting to talk again, but when she was left staring down at the girl’s vibrant expression, she figured she had been allocated her time to talk. “It’s wonderful to finally meet you too, Ruby.” 

*  
Anne didn’t intend for anyone to see her when she walked back into the flat after waving off Matthew, Marilla and Jerry. As she wiped the tears away from her cheeks, she could only thank her decision earlier to not wear any make-up due to all the heavy lifting involved in the day. Unfortunately for Anne’s hopes, at that moment two of her new flatmates were making their way into the kitchen and immediately noticed her tears. 

Before she knew what was happening, Anne was being swept into the kitchen, the arm of one girl wrapped around her shoulders and the arm of another around her waist. She was gently guided towards the sofas and when the comforting arms turned into a hug, she didn’t complain. 

“Let it all out now,” one of the girl’s soothed. 

“We’ve all been through it today, sister,” the other cooed. 

As the heaves settled and the tears dried, Anne allowed herself to pull away from the hugs of the girls. “I’m sorry,” she said with a small laugh, “that’s not the best way to introduce myself.”

“It’s nothing Jane didn’t do earlier,” the dark-haired girl to her left laughed, earning a small hit on the knee from the girl on her right. “I’m Tillie, you’re Anne, right?”

“Yep,” Anne nodded meekly, “the girl from the group chat with the ginger hair.” Tillie raised her eyebrows at the statement, silently asking for an explanation. “Ruby said that’s how she recognised me.”

Tillie’s only response was a shallow roll of her eyes. “That girl,” the curly-haired girl to her right sighed. “I’m Jane by-the-way.” She extended out a hand, which Anne took to shake, despite the concept being weird to her. “Sorry, I’m trying to get into the business mindset, you know. It needs to make up for me doing nothing all summer.” She let out a small laugh. “What degree do you do Anne?”

“English Lit.,” Anne said with a smile, glad to be distracted from thinking about home.

“Ooh good!” Tillie exclaimed, releasing her arm from Anne’s shoulder and bringing her hands together in an almost devious clap. “Another humanities; we outnumber Josie four to one now!” 

At Anne’s confusion, Jane remarked, “Josie bet that Tillie would be the only humanities student in the flat earlier. That’s two coffee’s she owes us.”

Tillie raised her hand to high-five Jane over the top of Anne’s head. “Listen,” Tillie turned to Anne after her celebration, “we’re all going to head down to the Fresher’s fair in a bit, you should come.”

*  
Anne wasn’t expecting the fair to be as busy as it was, but before she could marvel at the number of stalls laid out in the gigantic hall in front of her, she was swept up in a crowd of students that seemed almost as giant as Jerry and was steadily carried away from her new flatmates. It was at times like this that Anne wished she would stand out for her red hair, at least so much as people would notice her rather than ploughing forward unaware that they were taking a girl with them who had wanted to go in the opposite direction. 

Just before the group reached the exit, Anne managed to squirm out sideways and found herself standing in a much emptier section of the hall. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket and pulled it out to see a text from Tillie; instead of trying to find her in the huge hall, they would meet at The Nook, not just because Josie owed them coffees Anne was certain, and head back together after that. 

Anne quickly sent a reply before sliding her phone back into the back pocket of her jeans and seeing where she had ended up. There was a line of five stalls to her right, all facing the brick wall that marked the edge of the room. Only two still had their blue cloths on, the others having seemingly decided to pack up for the day, leaving bare tables and no sign of the societies they were there to represent. The one closest to her was still open, but seeing that it was for Ultimate Frisbee, Anne decided to walk past; sport already wasn’t her thing and she didn’t see a plastic disk helping. 

Further down, there was a dark-haired boy talking to a blonde woman sitting behind the clothed table. Anne stepped closer to the stall and saw that it was for the Creative Writing Society. Thanking her lucky stars that the crowd of people had carried her towards this stall, she made a beeline for it. 

A few paces away, the dark-haired boy turned away from the stall with a barely audible “Thank you,” and a leaflet in hand. As they crossed paths, Anne registered the fine specimen before her, but was too focused on the possibilities of the society to truly appreciate him. She failed to notice how the boy’s gaze followed her and his deep exhale as he realised where she was headed.


	2. Describe Your Surroundings

There were already a few people clustered around the large wooden table the Creative Writing Society had reserved in The Nook when Gilbert arrived, though, much to his disappointment, none of them were the redhead he had seen at the Fresher’s Fair the previous week. Placing his coat down on one of the empty stools, he walked over to the counter and ordered himself a mocha, decaf given the time of day, and strode back over to the table with his number. 

Returning, he found the seat next to him occupied by a bearded man with his notebook already out in front of him and decided it best to start up a conversation before the session began. Short introductions led to Gilbert finding out that his neighbour was on the committee, but before he could delve any further into conversation, the woman from the fair called the group to attention. 

With one final glance around, Gilbert accepted that the girl wasn’t going to be coming, and let his attention focus on the woman. “Hello everyone and welcome to our first meeting of the year. For those of you I don’t know, I’m Muriel Stacy, though please, for the love of god, call me Stacy.” She sent a small glare to the man beside Gilbert, earning a surrendering gesture from him in response and a few laughs from, Gilbert assumed, other committee members. “To those of you who are new, we normally run these sessions by setting a small task at the beginning to get your creative juices flowing and then we’ll have readings of work that some of our members have written over the week. Since we didn’t set anything last week, however, this week I’ve asked some of the committee members to write about what they did over summer, so that’s what we’ll be hearing this week.” She looked around the group and was met by a small number of awkward nods from the new members, including Gilbert.

“Right then,” Stacy clapped her hands together, “your warm-up task this week is to write about your surroundings, as in, this very coffee shop. Pick a detail, pick the whole place, pick outside, pick whatever you want.” She once again cast her gaze around but was at least met with slightly more enthusiastic nods this time. “Right then, off you go!”

With that she sat down, and Gilbert saw pens starting to scratch against paper around him. “You can tell she’s in teacher training, right?” Gilbert nodded in reply as the bearded man started to write. 

Reaching into his coat pocket, Gilbert pulled out his small writing journal. Just as he was setting it on the table, he noticed a flash of red at the end of the table where Stacy was sitting. “Sorry I’m late,” he heard an out of breath voice whisper, “is this the Creative Writing Society meeting?”

Stacy’s reply was drowned out as Gilbert looked over and noticed who it was who had come up to the table. Her hair was loose around her face, shimmering curtains framing a freckled piece of art. Finishing her conversation, she meandered around the table towards the empty seat opposite Gilbert. As she removed her deep blue coat, Gilbert was struck out of his trance by a mug being placed down next to him on the table.

“Decaf mocha,” the barista said with a smile, before removing the stand with his number on it. 

“Thank you,” Gilbert found himself saying when she was already out of earshot. Turning back towards the girl, he resisted the temptation to pinch the back of his hand, just to check if her appearing in front of him was a figment of his imagination. 

He found his eyes drawn to her again as she took her seat, brushing her hair behind her ears as she looked down towards Stacy. “We’re just describing our surrounds, Anne.” The redhead nodded in reply and smoothly removed her pen from the spiral of her ring-bound notebook. 

Anne. Gilbert repeated her name in his mind and before he knew it, his pen was in his hand and he was completing the task, though maybe not how it had originally been imagined.   
“And that’s time,” came Stacy’s voice from the head of the table. “Does anyone want to share?” Gilbert looked down at the words in front of him. Without having proofread, he already knew he was happy with the outcome, but he also knew that if there was one thing he didn’t want to do, it was to share his work; he may as well name the piece ‘How to Scare a Girl Off 101’. 

So, as those around him read aloud what they had written, describing everything from the wooden beamed ceiling to the worn tiled floor, to the steamed-up windows, Gilbert found himself studying Anne once more. He noticed how small lines formed at the edges of her eyes when she smiled, how she played with the hair bobble on her wrist when she was in thought, how she kept on glancing in his direction. 

He barely even noticed when the topic changed to the pieces the committee had written over the summer until the man next to him stood up to introduce himself. “Hi everyone, I’m Jake, the treasurer.” Gilbert turned in his seat because with Anne basically having to look at him to look at Jake, he could hardly keep up the game of flirting around the edges of her vision. 

It took all of Gilbert’s concentration to focus on Jake and his work, though when he did, he found himself laughing along to it with everyone else. At the end, Jake gave a mock salute towards Stacy and took his seat once more. 

“Thank you everyone. That’s end of the meeting now, but we’re meeting, same time, same place next week and if you want to write something for us, the theme is ‘A Great and Sudden Change’.” Gilbert glanced over to Anne to see her pen trailing across the paper, writing out the title for herself, her teeth digging into her bottom lip. “I can’t wait to see you then.”

With that, those around him descended into conversation as they started to pack away their things and wrap their coats around themselves. Gilbert followed suit, wanting to catch Anne before she left, to introduce himself to her at least, but as he was putting his coat on, the hem caught the table and knocked his notebook to the floor. Reaching down to pick it up, he cursed his own clumsiness. In those seconds, however, Anne was gone. 

Gilbert shook his head and wished those nearby a good night before starting his walk back home. When his housemates inevitably asked him how the meeting had gone, Gilbert couldn’t hide the smirk from his face as he admitted, “It was good, really good.”


	3. One Word Stories

For Gilbert, the next meeting of the Creative Writing Society couldn’t come soon enough. In a university with 30,000 students, he knew it was hardly likely that he could bump into Anne any other way, though he certainly hoped he would overcome the odds. 

Alas, it wasn’t until he walked into The Nook five minutes before the meeting was due to start that he saw her. She was sitting in the seat that had been empty next to Gilbert the previous week, her long, red hair tied up into a loose bun that sat limply atop her head. She leant forward over her notebook, scribbling away while those around her took their seats. 

As he looked over, he felt his heart rate suddenly build. He knew that her sitting where she was meant that he could take a seat next to her without it being weird, especially as Jake was sat in the same place, so surely it would make sense for him to as well. But then that would mean placing himself next to Anne. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to, but he could sense the feelings inside him growing for her, developing into a crush, a thought which made his heart leap into his throat. 

Walking up to the counter, he decided to order his coffee first and if the seat was empty afterwards, he would take it. The compromise seemed like a good idea until, upon receiving his number, he turned and found the seat still empty. He shut his eyes momentarily and then let out a sigh. “Is it better to speak or to die?” he muttered before striding over and placing his number down on the table in front of the empty stool next to Anne.

Receiving no reaction from the girl, her senses so invested in her work that they deprived her knowledge of the world around her, Gilbert took his coat off and instead started up a conversation with Jake, who’s beard was noticeably longer than the previous week. 

Within a few moments, Stacy called everyone to attention, leading to Anne finally looking up from her pages. Gilbert couldn’t help but watch as she put the lid on her fountain pen and closed her notebook, taking a sip of her half empty drink as she focused her attention on Stacy’s words, which Gilbert realised he should have been doing as well. 

“So, the warm-up exercise this week involves working in pairs so you can all get to know each other a bit better. Once you’re in your pairs, you’ll be writing a one-word-each story. I think everyone knows about these, spoken at least, but these will be written, because, well, it wouldn’t be much of a creative writing group otherwise. In case you don’t, for example, if I’m working with Rachel,” she gestured to the brown-haired girl next to her who gave a small smile in return for being singled out, “I would write down a word, then Rachel would, then I would and so on, and so on until we have a small story. Okay?” Looking over the people gathered and obtaining the necessary number of nods, she set them to work. 

Before Gilbert could comprehend Stacy’s words, the girl to his left turned to face him straight on. “Do you want to work together?” 

Her turning had brought them into direct eye-contact and Gilbert was left speechless for a second as he found himself looking at her light blue eyes, the dim lamps of the coffee shop reflecting little gold specs within them back towards him. “Uh, yeah, of course.” He couldn’t help but stretch the corners of his lips up as to how the situation had turned out. “I’m Gilbert, by the way.”

He pulled out his notebook and tore out a page, having already noticed that Anne was writing in a small leather-bound notebook this week, secured in such a way that tearing out a page would have been either near-impossible or simply disastrous. 

“I’m Anne, with an e that is.” She took another sip of her drink and pulled up one leg so that it was tucked under her other thigh.

“So,” Gilbert said taking out his pen and holding it over the top of the page, “A-N-N-E?”

“Exactly,” she replied, Gilbert catching her small smile out of the corner of his eye. He quickly wrote both of their names at the top of the sheet. Not stopping to ponder on getting to do that again in the future, he quickly wrote ‘The’ on the first line and passed the paper over to Anne.

Her eyebrows scrunched together as she looked at the paper. “The? I think I could have found a more interesting way to start our story, Gilbert.” She smiled and looked over at him, pen twirling between her fingers to let him know that she was teasing and Gilbert, easily a pushover for her already, gave in. 

“Oh, really? And how would you have started our story then?” Gilbert had to tell himself to calm down internally at the fact that they had both said ‘our story’ and instead focus on giving her a teasing smirk. 

“Hmm.” Anne brought her pen up so that it was resting on her bottom lip. At her silence, Gilbert raised his eyebrows and was about to interject her thoughts with a comment, but before he could she had come up with multiple ideas. “How about ‘eventually’ or ‘everything’ or ‘nothing’ or ‘roses’ or-“

“Mocha?” Both parties suddenly turned to the barista who was holding Gilbert’s drink in her hand. 

“Yes, thank you!” He carefully took the cup and saucer from her whilst she removed the number and took a sip before Anne let out a giggle. “What?” he questioned lightly, placing the mug down next to the still fairly empty piece of paper.

“Or ‘mocha’?” She raised her eyebrows and before Gilbert could say a word, she was crossing out his ‘the’ and replacing it. Anne slid the paper over towards Gilbert who had his pen poised and ready to write another ‘the’ to tease Anne some more before Stacy called them all to attention.

“Hopefully you’ve got something close to a story down now.” She clasped her hands together and cast a look around the group.

Anne and Gilbert looked down at the paper in front of them and then at each other. “To be continued?” Anne’s question struck Gilbert by surprise.

“To be continued,” he replied, a wistful look crossing his features as she turned back towards Stacy. 

Given Anne’s confidence in asking him to be partnered up with her, when she raised her hand to offer to be the only new member to tell her story about ‘A Great and Sudden Change’, Gilbert was hardly surprised. He watched as she rose up from her seated position until the back of her knees were level with her stool and her upper thighs were gently resting against the table in front of her. Bringing her notebook up so that it was directly in front of him, she began to read. 

Gilbert could tell that she was a storyteller at heart, her voice rising and falling with the tone of her piece, her words slowing when she reached a point she wanted the audience to reflect on. But Gilbert could also sense her nervousness, something which hardly surprised him given the intimate and horrific nature of her tale. He could see it in the way her hands trembled as she moved to turn a page, the small shakes he thought only visible to him given his proximity, and in the way that as her tale progressed, her thighs pressed deeper into the table in front of her, as if she were relying on it to keep her standing. 

As she reached the end, her voice had lowered to an almost whisper. She closed her notebook and let silence hang in the air for a few moments, framing her words better than anything Gilbert could imagine. He lowered his eyes to his own hands, clasped in his lap. He hadn’t realised how tightly he had been holding them, but there were the nail marks on them that only his father used to notice. 

Then the silence transformed into applause and Gilbert raised his eyes back to Anne, who was already looking down at him, her mouth parted as if exasperated by her experience. He unclasped his hands to join in the applause and the moment was over, Anne’s face turning to all those sat at the table as she resumed her seat. 

Stacy thanked Anne for her rendition and set them all another task for the next week, but Gilbert was beyond listening once again, his mind still transfixed by the girl running her fingers over the cover of her leather-bound notebook. Upon their dismissal, Gilbert was glad that neither party seemed to be in a hurry.

“That was, I can’t even find the words.” Gilbert’s voice came out so quiet that he was worried Anne wouldn’t have heard him, but instead she turned to face him.

“I take it that’s a good thing,” she said, a small smile coming over her features, though it was obvious to Gilbert that the topic matter was still hanging over her enough that a full smile wasn’t possible. 

“A very good thing,” Gilbert reassured. “I hope you don’t mind me saying, but…” Gilbert let his words trail off, unsure of whether he should take the step. He let his eyes flicker away to everyone leaving around him, before turning back towards Anne and coming to his decision. “I haven’t met anyone else who was orphaned, and from the sounds of it your journey was very different to mine, but I’m so glad you found your new family. I’m not sure what I would have done without mine.”

He waited for her to offer her condolences on the fact that he was orphaned, or ask what had happened, questions which over the past nine months he had come up with routine answers for, but she didn’t. Maybe it was because she was orphaned too and was as bored of those questions as he was, or maybe it was because she was still too caught up in her own past, but whatever her reasoning, Gilbert was grateful. 

“I used to think family was everything, and that I was incomplete without my mother and father, but then I recognised that family comes in many forms. So even though family is everything, everything can also be family.” As she spoke, she seemed to not be addressing him but the table they both sat at. With the final words past her lips, however, she looked back at him and smiled, one which he couldn’t help but return.

“Where have you been that makes you so wise?” He let himself joke rather than try to carry on a conversation that seemed painful to both of them. 

“Wise?” She chuckled. “I would hardly say I’m wise, I managed to burn my pasta to the bottom of my only pan last night!” He watched as crinkles formed at the edges of her eyes as her smile spread.

“Well, I would love to take it back and call you an idiot, but I’m afraid that that would make me an idiot too, so I can’t.”

Anne’s eyes widened as she realised what he was saying. “You’ve managed to burn pasta too? Marilla said I was the only one who could manage to do such a thing, I have to tell her about this!”

Neither Anne nor Gilbert noticed the last of the group leave the coffee shop, nor did they see the rest of the place slowly clear out. Gilbert was certain that when the barista came over to tell the pair that they were about to lock up that they had only been talking for a few minutes, but with his eyes fixated on Anne, he hadn’t noticed the chairs starting to be stacked on tables or the lights being dimmed even further. 

The two apologised for keeping them open so late and were quickly bundled up and out in the autumn air beyond the glass doors. Standing facing each other for the first time, Gilbert realised that he was a good head taller than Anne and that even in the dim light, he could still see the redness in her hair and the freckles that speckled across her features.

“So…” Gilbert started, unsure of what to say. It seemed natural that they would go their separate ways, but there was such a large part of him already tethered to this girl.

“Would you like to come back to mine?” 

Gilbert had to stop himself from screaming ‘yes!’ into the night air around them. He felt a blush creep up into his cheeks as he started to picture them going back to her flat together, but quickly shook his head to get rid of the image. He watched as her expression dropped, realising too slowly what the shake of his head meant.

“I, I would love to, but,” he paused to let an excuse for his behaviour come into his mind, “I have a deadline tomorrow that I really need to finish off the work for.” He breathed a sigh of relief as her expression seemed to calm. “I can walk you home though, if you’d like?”

Her smile in reply stilled his panic completely. “I would love that, Gilbert.”


	4. Film Night

Anne wasn’t sure how she ended up standing in front of her bathroom mirror, looking over her appearance and making sure she was happy with it before Gilbert arrived. Well, logically she knew it was because they had left things on Tuesday saying that they would meet up again soon, which had led to them texting the entire time that Gilbert was walking home, which had led to him asking her if she was free Thursday night, which had led to Anne suggesting that he come over to watch a movie. So, she knew how it had happened, but that didn’t make it seem any more real. 

Under the white bathroom light, Anne could see her freckles stand out harshly against her pale skin and the little hairs that were growing through from when she had last plucked her eyebrows. Running a hand through her hair, in a weak attempt to give it some more volume, she sighed and left the room, not wanting to appraise herself anymore before Gilbert arrived.

Picking up her phone from where she had left it lying on her desk, she saw that she still had a few minutes before the time they’d agreed, and if she thought about how well she kept to her own timings, maybe even longer. There were also messages from the girls, ranging from Tillie telling her where she kept some condoms if she needed them, to which Anne could only roll her eyes, to Ruby asking her to take a sneaky photo of Gilbert when they were hanging out. 

Anne flung her phone down onto her bed and let herself collapse down onto it straight after. She knew the girls expected something to happen between her and Gilbert, not that any of them were there to encourage it in person, thankfully, and when Anne let herself picture it, it was definitely an enjoyable image. But that was all it was, a painting in her mind which she had no idea whether she would be able to draw out.

A sharp buzz emanating from her phone interrupted her thoughts. Turning it over next to her, she saw that it was an incoming call from Gilbert and immediately answered.

“Hello?” Her voice came out at a much higher pitch than she would have liked and she couldn’t help but scrunch her eyes shut at the sound. 

“Hi.” She opened her eyes at his greeting, her heart seeming to swell to double its size before shrinking back down and beating at triple speed. “I think I’m outside the building but I’m not sure.”

“One second, I’ll come down.” Anne picked herself up off her bed and ran her fingers through the ends of her hair as she left her flat, making sure to leave the door on the latch. 

Heading down the stairs to the front door, she half expected Gilbert to hang up. “You know, this is the building next to where I lived last year.”

Anne slowed her pace, so her footfalls were less heavy on the carpeted stairs. “Really?”

“Yeah, and it had this amazing view out over the nature reserve. I used to love going on walks through there.” Having her phone right up against her ear, Anne could almost feel his words move through her as if it were his lips resting against her skin instead of her glass phone screen.

“Well, I would suggest a walk now, but it’s a bit dark.” She reached the bottom of the stairs and opened the door into the front hallway. 

“Probably best not too,” he chuckled. 

Anne stopped short as she saw Gilbert’s figure through the glass door. He was facing away, phone up to his ear and backpack casually resting over one shoulder. She could make out his dark curls under the outside light and let out a small sigh through her slightly parted lips. At that exact moment he decided to turn around.

“Thought I heard you.” Anne heard the words twice-fold, firstly muffled by the door, then a millisecond later in her ear. Looking at him standing there, part of her felt the urge to run right back upstairs, and her heart was certainly beating fast enough to carry her that far. “You going to leave me standing out in the cold, Anne?”

Gilbert’s words shocked her into action and she quickly hit the button to unlock the door whilst letting out her meek apology down the phone. He reached out to open the door and with a rush of cold wind from outside, he was standing in front of her, lowering his phone and hanging up whilst keeping his gaze on her.

“Hey, you.” He put his phone in his pocket and Anne followed suit. 

“My flat’s up here.” She let out a small smile before turning around and heading back towards the stairs. Hearing his steps behind her, she slowed her pace, realising that if she walked too far ahead his eyeline would end up on her rear, which Tillie had told her she should do, but that only made Anne want to do it less. 

“Did you bring the film then?” She asked the question letting her eyes break from their focus on the steps in front of her and allowing them to slide to the man beside her. In the stairwell light she could see his cheeks were slightly red from the chill outside, matching the little patches on the tops of his ears. 

“Of course.” He let out a small scoff. “I can’t believe that someone who says they love Pride and Prejudice as much as you do has never seen the 2005 film.” He raised his eyebrows at her and sent over a small smirk, something which she couldn’t resist the urge to giggle back at.

“Hey!” She spoke as they reached the top of the staircase, “When the Colin Firth version exists, what’s the need to see anything else?”

She pushed open the door to her flat and led him straight to her room, even though she knew no one would be in the kitchen. “I mean, that’s a fair point, but I think you’ll enjoy it.” They had come to a stop just inside her room and as the door swung shut behind Gilbert, he toed off his boots and shed his backpack and coat, making them into a neat pile.

“See,” Anne jibed, letting one leg fold under the other as she took a seat on her bed. “If even you can’t resist the charms of Colin Firth then how am I supposed to?” Gilbert let out a small chuckle before joining her on the bed, niftily pushing himself backwards so that his back came to rest against the wall and his feet were the only things dangling off the edge. “Really dressing up for me then?” Anne continued to jibe, casting her gaze down to his joggers with little bobbles of cotton coming off along their length.

“Says you,” he joked in return, looking down at her own joggers, which, though less threadbare, were definitely well worn. “I was hardly going to sit and watch a movie in jeans now was I?”

“Fair point, fair point.” Anne let her eyebrows travel upwards until she was unintentionally mocking his signature pose.

“Plus, when you have a baby to look after, you realise that comfort matters above everything else, especially when they fall asleep on you and you’re stuck in the same position of hours.” He shook his head, presumably at the memory of the countless occasions. 

“Wait, you have a baby?” Anne asked the question deep down knowing that that wasn’t the case, or at least hoping very deeply that it wasn’t, but she couldn’t keep the surprised tone out of her voice. 

“I don’t! She’s my niece, Delphine, Dellie for short.” He reached into the pocket of his joggers and pulled out his phone. “Here, let me show you.”

Anne scooted over so that she was sitting next to him, the wall feeling far too cold against her back. Sitting this close to him, she could hardly focus on the album of pictures he was opening up because, for the first time since Tuesday, she could smell the deep, musky scent that was unmistakably his. She let herself breath it in deeply, but quietly, before trying to focus on his phone.

“She’s adorable.” Anne couldn’t help but let the words come out like a coo.

As Gilbert swiped through some more pictures, he spoke. “Don’t go getting all broody now! I can’t have anyone else have kids for a while when I’ve got her to worry about.” 

Without Anne realising, he had turned his face towards her and was watching the minute expressions cross over her face as he went from one picture to the next.

“Ha! I’d have to find someone willing to have a child with me first.” When her joke got no response, she turned her head to the side and found her face mere inches from Gilbert’s. She could see the light grey-green of his eyes as his looked down at hers and felt their breath mingling. 

“Right!” Gilbert let the word escape him as he suddenly jumped up from the bed and headed over to his bag. “Film time, I think.”

Anne couldn’t help but feel her heart sink as he walked to the other side of the room. In that moment, she knew that it would have been so easy for them to kiss, just a couple of millimetres and things would have easily been so different. She had gotten so used to saying that no one would have a child with her that it didn’t sting as much as when it had been said to her, but it didn’t mean it hurt any less when it was shown to her to be true by someone else. 

***

Anne came out of the darkness of sleep to the feeling of being gently cocooned. She could tell that she was lying down on her bed, but apart from that, everything else felt unfamiliar. Against her cheek she could feel the touch of hot skin and the constriction of an arm around her waist. Letting her senses awaken, she could hear gentle breathing above her head and smell a comforting scent engulfing her. 

She couldn’t help but let out a contented sigh and relax into the embrace. In return, her embracer held her tighter, pulling Anne in deeper. 

Letting her eyes drift slowly open, she was met with the familiar view of her room, collections of fairy lights casting a warm, dim glow over her desk and bookshelves packed to the brim. On her desk lay her laptop, the image it bore seemed to be the home screen of a movie. 

Internally Anne gave a start, a shock running through her body as where she was, what she had been doing and who she was with came back to her. She sat up sharply, the adrenaline running through her giving her the strength to escape the embrace Gilbert had held her in. 

Her movement had caused him to awaken, his eyes fluttering on the border between consciousness and unconsciousness until they widened and he saw Anne sitting above him. “Anne?” His voice was groggy and Anne couldn’t help but wonder if his voice always sounded like that when he woke up. “What’s going on?”

She let out a small cough to make sure her throat was clear. “I think we fell asleep.” She let her eyes connect with his before forcing herself to look away and focus on the thin carpet beside her bed. 

“Oh, I’m sorry.” He pushed himself up so he was seated and tilted his head from side to side until there was a small, but audible, crack on each side. 

Anne could feel how close he was, her knees unintentionally resting against the side of his legs as their bodies faced each other, still draw by their connection that had broken only moments before. “What are you apologising for?” Anne let herself look at him again, their faces once again on the same level. 

“I guess it takes two to fall asleep together.” Gilbert’s voice came out as a whisper and Anne couldn’t help but notice how his eyes were flickering over her face. She could feel her heart start to pump blood around her body faster, a small thrumming building up in her ears as she saw his eyes rest their gaze on her lips. 

Anne stood up suddenly, fighting the pins and needles in her legs as she took the stride over to her laptop. “Gosh, what time is it?” She quickly moved back to her home screen, making sure not to turn back around and look at the boy on her bed. “Gilbert, it’s almost one in the morning!”

“I probably better be off then.” Anne could hear the disappointed tone in his voice but was determined to ignore it. It seemed to her that his intentions of not kissing her had been made quite clear when he first arrived and now Anne would be determined to hold up those values, past experience telling her it was better to give up on a pursuit of the heart when the intentions clearly weren’t returned. 

“Yes, probably,” she agreed, turning back around to find him clambering off her bed. As he strode over to where he’d placed his things, she couldn’t help but let her eyes follow. She could feel the warmth fading from her back where it had been pressed against him and couldn’t help but wonder whether he could have that same feeling. 

Dressed for the outside once again, Anne felt comfortable enough to walk Gilbert to the door of her flat, the fact that it was no longer on the latch telling her that the girls were already back.

“I’ll see you soon?” The way he phrased it as a question, adding to the sting forming over Anne’s heart. 

“Yes.” She couldn’t help but agree, not when he was the one asking. 

He held out his arms and she let herself be pulled into a hug. It felt odd to have her face pressed into the harsh fabric of his coat rather than the soft skin of his arm and she didn’t dare let herself breathe in case she had another memory to try to forget. 

Releasing her, Gilbert left the flat and tipped an imaginary hat to her. “Goodnight, Anne.”

She couldn’t help but smile, though by the time she said her own goodnight, Gilbert was already gone, his footsteps fading as he walked down the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The halfway point has arrived ahhhh


	5. House Parties and Drunken Dancing

“Remind me why we’re going to this party, Anne.” Josie’s voice cut into the night air as the five girls made their way slowly up a hill to the promise of warmth at the top.

Before Anne could reply, Tillie cut in. “Cause Anne wants Gilly-boy of course.” She let out a laugh that was matched by Jane and as Anne scowled over at the pair, she was sure she saw them subtly high-five each other. “What?” Tillie asked at the scowl. “It’s not like I said you wanted to ride his-”

“Tillie!” Ruby shouted into the night and brought her hands up to cover her ears. “Don’t make me start singing, because I will!”

Anne, the one tasked with carrying their alcohol to the party, wished she could have covered her ears as well, but the risk of hitting the all too heavy glass bottles against herself was too great. “Don’t worry, Ruby, that definitely won’t be happening!” Deeming the situation safe, Ruby lowered her hands from her ears. 

“Why not?” Jane asked the question as she strode in front of the group and preceded to turn around so that she was walking backwards up the hill, directly in front of Anne. The fact that she was wearing Docs seemed to make the task painful, but it didn’t show on Jane’s expression.  
“Well, I thought we were going to kiss on Thursday, I really did,” Anne admitted to the group, “but then he pulled away the first time and I’m not going to go after someone who doesn’t want to be got. I value myself much highly than that.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and shrugged, trying to pass off the topic as if she really wasn’t interested in the hopes that the girls would leave the situation alone. 

Though, the fact that they were on their way to a house party hosted by Gilbert determined the situation to be otherwise. “Are you sure he didn’t just get a bit scared of it all?” Jane slowed her pace even more, forcing the group to start moving at a snail’s pace, even though they were almost there.

“Why would Gilbert be scared of Anne?” Ruby pondered. “Surely it’s even worse if he’s scared.”

“Not scared of Anne, dummy.” Jane rolled her eyes, earning a little huff from Ruby. “But of the situation. You’ve only known of each other for what, a week and a half?” Anne nodded in her pause. “And you only really got talking on Tuesday, that’s only,” she paused again to count the days on her ring-covered fingers, “four days to now, even less since Thursday. Maybe he doesn’t want to rush into things.”

There were some collective hums of agreement until Josie spoke. “And yet guys will sleep with Tillie after thirty minutes.” The group suddenly came to a stop, all except Josie, who came to a stop after a few paces, realising that she was walking on alone. She turned, blonde curls swaying over the top of her cream coat. “What?” Her eyebrows raised slightly. “I’m not saying it like it’s a bad thing!”

“You better not be,” Jane sighed and glanced over at Tillie, who thankfully seemed unaffected by the comment. 

Within a few moments of deciding to carry on walking, they reached the house. Anne, ungratefully pushed to the front of the group, knocked on the front door. To her relief, she was greeted by a short girl with a pixie haircut, not a tall boy with dark hair, who showed them all into the narrow kitchen. After showing them the space in the fridge they’d left for people’s alcohol, moving two very tall boys out of the way in the process, she seemed to realise that she didn’t know the group. “Who gave you out an invite then?” She took up the position the boys had held on the fridge and crossed her arms as she looked Anne up and down.

“Uh, Gilbert invited me.” Anne let the handles of her bag run in between her fingers, scared to look at the doorway to the rest of the house in case he suddenly appeared.

The girl’s eyes narrowed and then widened. “You’re Anne!” Her exclamation pushed her off the fridge so hard that it shook slightly. “From the creative writing thingy?”

Anne let out a small smile. “That’s me.”

“Gosh I should have realised. I mean, you are cute.” At Anne’s sudden blush, the girl stumbled to get the rest of her words out quick enough to escape the situation. “Listen, let me take all your coats,” she gushed, practically tearing Ruby’s jacket from her grasp. Anne shrugged out of hers just in time to have the girl collect it and dash out of the room with a faint, “They’ll be safer in my room.”

Anne still couldn’t bring herself to look through the doorway the girl had disappeared through and instead focused on handing over the drinks to the girls. Tillie took the bag from her gracefully whilst Jane commented, “I think we’re all going to need more than a few drinks tonight.”

As Tillie set out her bottles on the counter and began her precise task of mixing, a couple more people came into the room and started making drinks of their own. “What you guys drinking?” One girl addressed the group, cup still in hand, leaning comfortably back against the counter.

“Vodka lemonade,” Josie answered, eyeing up the girl. “You?” 

“White wine for me, squadka for this one.” She tapped the boy next to her on the shoulder, which, considering that he was at least a head taller than her, she made seem very natural. 

“Squadka?” Ruby asked, looking at the pair with a furrowed brow. “What on earth is that?”

The boy turned around and out of the corner of Anne’s eye she noticed a blush immediately forming over Ruby’s cheeks. To give her credit, his curly brown hair and energetic smile appeared quite endearing to Anne.

“Only the best drink on the planet!” He stepped forward and offered Ruby his cup, who seemed to grab it as a reflex more than particularly wanting to. “It’s squash and vodka, only the best combination known to man.”

Ruby took a tentative sip and as she swallowed, the focus of everyone in the room turned to see her reaction. “It’s not too bad,” she concluded, handing the cup back over. 

“Oh dear, oh dear, another burn baby bro.” The boy turned around to send a scowl back to the girl. “Wait, wait, don’t get all,” she paused, raising her cup as if making a toast, “Moody.” She started laughing, not caring that no one else in the room was joining in and took another sip of her drink before turning around to pour herself another cup full on the kitchen counter. 

“What my, hilarious, sister is trying to say is that I’m Moody.” He held out his hand to Ruby who, once again in a state of confusion, shook it before releasing it gently so that he could shake the hands of everyone else in the room. 

“It’s not your real name,” the girl chimed in, facing the group again. 

“But it’s better than my real name,” Moody sighed. “And everyone calls me it, even mum and dad.”

“Fair point,” the girl said with a shrug, as if she’d heard his name ramblings on many occasions. “I’m Grace.” Unlike her brother, she opted for a small hand raise, to which the girls gave a sigh of relief; Moody’s hands had held that air of stickiness that came with pouring alcohol again and again. 

After the girls introduced themselves, Ruby not so subtly only looking at Moody when she did so, and they had their drinks in hand, Grace led them into the rest of the house. Leading out of the kitchen single file and tucked safely in between Tillie and Jane, Anne suddenly wasn’t so worried about seeing Gilbert.

***

Anne wasn’t sure when someone had dimmed the living room lights and people had started dancing, but out of nowhere it seemed, her view across the room from the arm of the sofa on which she was perched was blocked by a throng of bodies moving to a beat which Anne couldn’t put her finger on. 

Through the throng, Tillie appeared, clutching three cups in her hands. “Refills my ladies,” she shouted, handing one cup over to Anne and the other to Jane, who was standing beside her, subtly leaning against the wall. 

“Why thank you, my lord,” she replied, dipping her head slowly, before raising it so quickly that she couldn’t stop it from hitting the wall.

Tillie and Anne could only laugh at her cry of pain, though doing so only highlighted Anne’s own state to herself, the laughs sending her off balance ever so slightly and it seemed to take her an age to recover from the spell of dizziness. 

Taking a sip of her drink, she watched as Tillie leaned over to whisper in Jane’s ear, and though the whisper wasn’t quiet, Anne couldn’t hear the comment over the thrum. What she did see was Jane’s eyes widen. “Anne, we need to go dance!” Her shout roused Anne, who agreed to, if only because it stopped her from drinking for a bit. 

The three moved into the space next to where they had been sitting and before she knew it, Anne was jumping and winding and moving along to the music, having as much fun as those around her seemed to be having. She could even hear laughs sound as Tillie tried some more experimental moves in front of her, though it took her a moment to realise that she was the one laughing. 

Taking one of her hands, Jane raised her arm to spin Anne around, but halfway round, the contact disappeared, and Anne was left looking in the other direction, straight at Gilbert Blythe. His eyes seemed to stare straight through her, his gaze still and focused despite the fact that his body was still moving towards her, as if right at the second Jane had spun her, Gilbert had decided to walk over. 

Without realising it, he crashed into her, but instead of them falling to the floor, as Anne had expected, Gilbert took her empty hand and finished her spin, leaving her facing away from him and staring at an empty space next to her. She turned back towards him to find a challenge in his eyes as he started moving, hand running through his hair as his hips moved to the music in a way that Anne had seen no other boys do before.

She silently accepted the challenge, continuing to dance as she had been with Tillie and Jane. Only, she had to admit, it wasn’t the same. As they danced, their fingers would brush, Anne would look away, swinging her head in time to the beat and finding Gilbert following her every move, copying it with a distinct one of his own, all the while their bodies moving closer until Anne felt his hand rest on her waist at the point her jeans met her top. She couldn’t help but reciprocate the move and reach an arm up so that her fingers wound in his hair, clutching onto him as their bodies pressed against each other.

Anne let her mouth rest against his shoulder, breathing into the thin fabric there as Gilbert’s hand slowing traced down her jeans, arching over the curve of her back pocket and what lay beneath it. Thoughts raced through Anne’s head at a million miles an hour whilst her body continued to move against the boy she was holding as if out of her conscious control. She could smell that familiar scent that had all but overwhelmed her not two days previously, mixed with only the faintest hint of alcohol. 

The music around them seemed to fade as she felt Gilbert’s lips against her head and before she leaned back, she knew exactly what she would find there; Gilbert gazing down at her, want in his eyes and his mouth ready to press against hers. She took a deep breath, which only hitched when Gilbert pressed closer to her, holding her against him in a way that more than raised her heart rate. Slowly letting her head fall backwards, she greeted him with a smile and the look on his face made her head swim in a way that was more than just the alcohol running through her veins.

He started to lower himself towards her when she was suddenly pulled from his grasp. Her body suddenly went cold at the loss of contact and she was greeted by Jane’s panicked expression. “Ruby’s just thrown up outside, Anne! We have to go, she’s really not well.”

Anne could only nod as she felt herself being pulled towards the door, time only allowing her to spare one last look back at Gilbert, stood alone despite being surrounded by people dancing. 

“Sorry!” She managed to shout as they left the room, but she couldn’t be sure that he’d heard it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've never tried squadka before I can't recommend it enough. Vodka, squash and water, in that order, please don't make the mistake I did of putting the vodka in last ...


	6. Reconciliations and Red Cheeks

Gilbert couldn’t quite believe it when he saw Anne sitting at the table in the coffee shop the next Tuesday. Since the party on Saturday night, he had only received a single text from her and when he got no reply to his response, he considered whatever was going on between them over. Once Mary had told him that Anne had arrived, the night started to get a bit blurry as his friends insisted that after his royal cock-up earlier in the week, it would be easier to talk to Anne with more alcohol in his system.

He did remember them dancing together though. He could see her body moving as if it was happening in front of him at that moment and he most definitely couldn’t forget the feel of her jeans under his palms, the curves that had been so clear under her joggers that were then so tightly packed under the black fabric, but that only made the possibility of touching her more tantalising. And then she had disappeared, just as he was working up the courage to close the distance between them and let his lips explain his feelings in a way that they couldn’t with words. 

Her disappearance and lack of contact had only led him to the conclusion that she hadn’t wanted him in that way, which was more than fair, but after those situations, he normally found there was a period of separation before they could be comfortable in social situations once more. With Winifred, it had taken a few months before she would even agree to be in the same room as him, but here Anne was, a few days later. 

As he was ordering at the counter, he made the mistake of glancing over in Anne’s direction. She was chatting with Stacy, her hair tied back in a singular braid that exposed the constellations of freckles on her cheeks, her hand resting under her chin as she smiled, the fabric of her long-sleeved top bunched up between her fingers and palm. As if she could sense Gilbert looking, she slowly let her gaze wander towards the counter. Realising a second too late that she would see him looking, by the time he was staring back at the till, she had spotted his attention. 

Looking out of the corner of his eye as he tapped his card on the machine, he could see Stacy follow Anne’s gaze toward him and silently cursed at himself, a blush forming over his cheeks. As he walked over, trying to act as if he hadn’t been caught, Stacy vacated her seat to move to her position at the head of the table. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, a subtle attempt to look at Gilbert a second time without him noticing, which only made Gilbert’s blush turn a deeper shade of red. He clutched his number tighter within his hand and let his teeth clench before releasing them.

“Hello.” Anne turned in her seat as she spoke. Gilbert placed his number down on the table next to her, wanting to take his own seat before they had the chance to speak, silently hoping that Stacy would decide to start the session before their conversation had the chance to start. However, as he shrugged out of his coat, Anne continued her line of thought with no prompting. “I’m so sorry if you’re angry with me.” Gilbert’s attention swung to her, not being able to hide the look of confusion from his features. “Ruby had far too much to drink and she’s not normally one to throw up.” 

Her statement only made the expression stick around longer than it normally would have, Gilbert’s mind racing between the initial possibility that Anne thought him angry that she had rejected his advances and having to sustain the leap to one of Anne’s flatmates throwing up, presumably at the house party. “Oh, I didn’t even know that she’d thrown up.” His admittance only made him realise once again how drunk he had been. 

“Yes.” Anne looked down to her lap, a moment which Gilbert decided to take advantage of so that he could sit down. “In the outside bin, I think. I wasn’t there to see it.” 

The reason why she hadn’t been there silently hung between them for a moment. “It was bin day on Monday,” Gilbert let his shoulders rise and fall, “so if they didn’t notice it can’t have been that bad, don’t worry about it.”

Gilbert could see Anne’s shoulders visibly fall in relief. “Good! Gosh I was so worried that you hated me after that and you not replying.”

Gilbert’s eyebrows creased together as he questioned her words. “What do you mean? I replied to your text on Sunday.”

“Did you?” Anne’s hand went to her phone in the front pocket of her trousers, the plaid material stretching as she manoeuvred her phone into her hand. She quickly opened up her texts and whilst she was searching through, Gilbert’s number got replaced with his mocha. As the barista pulled back, the blush across Anne’s cheeks was revealed. “I wrote out a message, but I must not have pressed send.” She turned her screen towards him momentarily and he could see a couple of lines of text but didn’t get a chance to read them before her phone screen was locked and the device face down on the table. “Sorry, seems like I shouldn’t have thought that you were angry.”

“Don’t apologise, Anne.” Seeing her continued tight expression, he tried to reassure her. “I’ve had far worse things happen, believe me.”

He raised his mug to his lips to take a sip, but it seemed that Anne was determined to make the misunderstanding up to him. “At least let me invite you out. We’re going to the Student’s Union on Friday and then if you decide to throw up outside my flat, we’ll be even more even.”

He chuckled as he placed his cup onto his saucer. “How can I say no to being even more even?”

Before Anne could smile at his response, Stacy stood up at the head of the table and called them all to attention. 

The initial exercise passed much as it had the week before, the teasing between the two stopping them from getting too far, the only difference being that the task set by Stacy that week was not a group task, so their teasing had to be carried out in whispers rather than loud cajoles. 

As Stacy was explaining what the exercise should have done to improve their writing, or not in the case of Anne and Gilbert, Gilbert chose to finish off his mocha, realising slightly too late how cold it had gotten. As he lowered the cup from his lips, Anne decided to look back at him. Her hand suddenly shot up to cover her mouth and a sound close to a yelp escaped her. Quickly feigning it as a cough, which thankfully meant few people were distracted from Stacy’s words, she subtly slid Gilbert her napkin.

Gilbert picked up the cloth, raising his eyebrows questioningly. Removing her hand from her mouth, Anne instead drew circles with her index finger around her lips. The blush Gilbert had been wearing earlier quickly returned as he wiped across his upper lip and found the napkin come back chocolate brown. He quickly scrubbed the rest off and scrunched the napkin up, stuffing it in his cup, hiding it as if it were his shame for managing to get chocolate all around his mouth like a child still learning to feed themselves. 

“Don’t worry,” Anne whispered as the first person sharing their story from the previous week stood up, “it was cute.” At that moment, Gilbert was glad he was already blushing so that she couldn’t see the effect her words were having on him. 

Her admittance only made Gilbert hyperaware of her presence as the various society members stood up to read out their work. He pondered on her thinking him cute and whether, as she hadn’t been ignoring his texts, whether she had truly rejected him. The Ruby incident would explain her sudden disappearance if not wanting to be with him wasn’t the reason. 

With all these thoughts, plus countless new ones every time she moved, swinging her braid over her shoulder, taking a sip of her smoothie, spinning around his head, he was horrified when Jake told the group what his work was about. “I guess the best way to explain it is the ‘build up’.”

Gilbert was sure that if he had had any liquid in his mouth, it would have been spluttered all over the table. “I hope this doesn’t contain any explicit content, Jake,” Stacy interrupted, her nails visibly digging into her palms. “We may all be eighteen or older but this is a public coffee shop and there are other places for such,” she paused, only momentarily, but it was enough for all the wrong pictures to go through the heads of everyone sat around the table, “outlets.”  
“God, Stacy! You’ve got such a dirty mind.” He said it with a smirk that told everyone that was exactly the response he’d been hoping to get out of her. “No, not that sort of build-up, more when you meet someone and the romance is building between the two of you.”

It took every ounce of Gilbert’s self-control not to turn around and see Anne’s reaction to the statement. As Jake had taken up his usual place on his right, his head and shoulders were turned away from the redhead, making any attempt to look at her far too obvious. 

But, as Jake spoke, the only thing that remained obvious to Gilbert were his words and Anne beside him. She had manoeuvred herself in such a way that her knee came to rest against Gilbert’s thigh. He marvelled at how such a touch could be so calming and yet so electric at the same time. It was as if the connection radiated a heat that soothed him as well as setting him on fire. And Jake’s words certainly weren’t helping the matter.

His piece finished with the characters engaged in a kiss and at the moment he described their lips connecting, Anne’s knee pressed deeper into his leg and he felt an involuntary rush of blood to his cheeks as well as his groin. The mere thought of kissing with Anne in such close proximity could only make him think of one situation, one outcome, which would be better than any words written on paper. 

“Wasn’t that wonderful,” Anne whispered in Gilbert’s ear, her breath tickling his skin, causing goose bumps to erupt all over. 

Gilbert turned his head, placing himself mere inches from Anne and leaving his eyes trapped in her gaze. “Wonderful,” he whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somehow I'm ridiculously tired at 4pm, but hopefully that doesn't stop this chapter from making sense and (even better) you enjoying it! Next weekend is squeezed in between two exams so if I don't update, that's the reason 😊


	7. Nights Out and Miscommunications

Gilbert could hardly focus in his lectures that Friday afternoon, not that he was particularly good at focusing in them anyway. Instead of the usual daydreams about going back home or the thought of taking a nap, it was Anne that filled his mind. After how well things had seemed to go on Tuesday, he felt it was the right time to request to follow her on Instagram, but as he sat scrolling through her pictures in the back of the lecture theatre, he started to regret the decision. 

There was a subtle change in the people in her pictures as she moved to uni, but Gilbert was mainly drawn to the ones of just her anyway. She always wore the same small smile, her cheeks slightly shielding her eyes, usually out in nature or on horseback or reading. He couldn’t help but linger on them, just to see her smile back at him for a little longer. 

A sudden commotion around him made him look up from his phone to see the lecturer’s final slide fade to black on the screen and the students around him pack away their things. Looking down at his notes on the desk in front of him, Gilbert realised a great lack of them, the last thing written being from what must have been one of the first slides. 

He sighed, packing the barely used paper away quickly, the only upside being that at least he could listen back later. Though, it wouldn’t be that day because with how fast his heart was beating already and with pre’s only being a few hours away, Gilbert didn’t see himself doing any more work.

The only thing he could see was his imagination running wild at what might happen between him and Anne. The last time they had done something that involved loud music and lots of people, they had danced together, bodies pressed tight against each other and they had almost kissed. And this time, Gilbert wanted it to be different in one key element; that he could pull Anne close and kiss her in a way which would make her never want to stop. 

*

As Gilbert checked over his appearance one final time in the mirror, he sent Anne a text to say that he was about to head over. Once the message had flown onto the screen, Gilbert’s breathing heightened, realising that he had added a kiss to the end of the text. Before he could do anything, the small typing bubble appeared, rendering his rapid breathing into near silence as he held it in, not wanting to let himself live if the mistake ended badly. Much to his surprise, her enthusiastic response ended with three kisses. Gilbert was only disappointed that Mary wasn’t in so he could ask her what on earth three kisses meant, though he was sure she would be grateful for her absence. 

After walking through the chilled streets towards Anne’s flat, though in much less comfy attire than when he had come over to watch films with her, Gilbert repeated the motion of calling her to let him in, even though he knew he could buzz up directly to the flat. Something about seeing her kisses back to him on the screen meant the chill disappeared from his body and when he pressed his thumb against the call button his screen felt cool to the touch, rather than emanating the warmth of his back pocket.

After a couple of rings, a dead silence dropped before he heard a breathless “Hello” in his ear. 

“I’m here,” he announced to the glass door, lifting the arm holding his bag of pre-mixed Captain Morgan’s and coke to his lacking audience. 

“Gilbert.” He could imagine the smile on her face as she said his name. “I’m not quite ready yet but,” he heard her pull away from the phone, “Jerry! Jerry will let you in.”

“Okay,” Gilbert said, but before he could continue, the line had gone dead. It hadn’t been quite the welcome he had been expecting, especially after how Tuesday had gone. Putting his phone to sleep and sliding it into his back pocket, he turned around to glance at the building that had once been his home. There were lights and sounds coming from most of the windows, some flashing green, blue and purple with drum and bass beats flowing out of them, from others the sounds of chatter and laughter. 

Before Gilbert could think of the times where it had turned from a fun experience into one of pain and loathing that people could have such fun while he was in mourning, the door behind him opened. Turning, Gilbert was greeted by a boy much taller than himself, with brown strings of hair and a smile that reminded him of Anne’s.

“’ello, you must be Gilbert.” His English seemed slightly accented but held a distinct twang of Anne’s own speech. “I’m Jerry.”

Gilbert paused for a second before collecting himself. “Nice to meet you.” He took the door from Jerry and started to follow him up the stairs. After a few moments of silence, Gilbert couldn’t help but ask, “Do you live in one of the other flats here?”

Jerry let out a small chuckle, his long legs moving him surprisingly slowly as they both continued to walk. “No, no, I’m up visiting Anne for the weekend.”

“Oh,” was all Gilbert could bring himself to say, mind faltering as to why a man Anne had never mentioned would be visiting her. 

“Yes, I’ve already been here, when Anne moved in, but I wanted the chance to meet her friends properly and to go out, of course.” Gilbert’s mind cast him back to when one of his housemate’s boyfriends had needed to be introduced ‘properly’ after an incident of mistaken room identity. The mere memory forced him to shudder as they reached Anne’s floor. 

Entering the flat, Gilbert could hear a faint thrum of music coming from the kitchen, but Jerry led him to Anne’s bedroom. “She’ll be in the bathroom still. She spends ages getting ready for special nights out.” Jerry didn’t continue but Gilbert filled in the blank at the end, special because Jerry was visiting. 

As Jerry opened the door to Anne’s room and Gilbert was hit with a much stronger version of Anne’s normal perfume, he noticed a lack of sleeping bag or another place to sleep that wasn’t her bed. Testing the waters with Jerry, he found himself asking, “You’re sharing a bed then?”

Jerry’s eyebrows crumpled together momentarily before his face resumed its relaxed manner. “Of course, what else would we do?”

Before Gilbert could reply, and something which Gilbert was very grateful for because he had no idea what he would have replied, the door to Anne’s en suite opened. She’d curled her hair so it fell in defined waves around her face and had chosen a black denim skirt for the occasion, the expanse of her legs ending in trainer socks spotted with cat faces. 

“Thank you for getting the door, you’re an angel,” Anne said, blowing a kiss past Gilbert’s shoulder and over to Jerry who caught it and pressed it against his heart, a laugh bubbling between the two of them.

“See you in the kitchen,” Jerry called as he backed away and left Gilbert and Anne alone in the latter’s room. 

Gilbert let out a small cough and looked down at his feet momentarily, forcing himself to come to terms with the fact that Jerry was likely Anne’s boyfriend, before casting his gaze back up to her. “You wanted to try rum and coke then?” He forced the smile onto his face as he asked the question. 

*

As the night progressed and more alcohol entered his system, Gilbert found it harder to stop himself from asking about the nature of her relationship with Jerry. Sitting across from the pair at pre’s he could see how natural they were with each other, Jerry’s sarcastic comments earning him gentle slaps on the knee from Anne, Jerry casually reaching round to ruffle Anne’s hair as she tried to take a selfie, which, of course, earnt him another knee slap. 

The more he pondered on the situation, the less it made sense. So, after his first few drinks, he settled into conversation with some of the other girls in Anne’s flat and stayed talking with them until they reached the SU club night, at which point the music became too loud for any more talking. 

There would be no dancing between him and Anne like the week before, partly because this night had more songs to sing, or scream in the case of Jane and Tillie next to him, along to rather than a beat that leant itself to swaying in another person’s embrace and partly because if Anne and Jerry were together, not only would he not want to make a move on her, but he definitely wouldn’t want to make a move on her in front of him. 

By the time the group was tired enough to leave, Tillie was complaining about how hungry she was, forcing the group to stop off in a takeaway for chips, and gravy in her case, on their way back. Styrofoam containers full of chips in hand, the group started to meander along the quiet streets. 

Anne came to walk beside Gilbert and with a look from Jane, the rest started to speed up, giving enough distance that their conversation wouldn’t be overheard. 

“Have you had a good night?” Anne asked as she picked a chip up between her fingers. “I feel like I’ve barely had the chance to talk to you all night.” She looked over her shoulder to give him a smile before delicately placing the chip on her tongue.

“It’s been good.” Gilbert paused, thinking of the best way to phrase his thoughts. “I just didn’t want to get in the way of you spending time with Jerry.”

Anne let out a low hum as she finished chewing. “I mean, it’s great to have Jerry up, but I’ve had him in my life for almost six years now, I think one night won’t be too badly missed.”

“That’s a long time to have been together,” Gilbert mussed, not realising what he’d said until it was too late.

Anne stopped suddenly in the middle of the street, forcing Gilbert to turn around to face her. “You think Jerry and I are together, like he’s my boyfriend?”

“Uh, well, the way you talk and act together and, I mean, you’re sharing a bed so, I just thought…” Gilbert trailed off, unsure of what else he could add to make the situation better, or at least, not any worse. 

Anne, to his surprise, let out a small giggle. “You thought Jerry was my boyfriend? Gilbert,” she took a deep breath to calm herself, “he’s my cousin.”

Gilbert had to pause for a moment himself before replying, “Your cousin?”  
Anne nodded and started walking again, forcing Gilbert to move as well so he wasn’t left behind. “Yep, I’m sure I mentioned him, he’s part of the reason Matthew and Marilla adopted me, we’re related through him.” She paused to let out another small giggle. “I can’t believe you thought we were together.”

“I mean, being cousins doesn’t stop some people,” Gilbert joked, earning a small chuckle from Anne in return. “And Jerry seemed to think that my suggestion of you two not shared a bed was weird!”

“We always top and tail,” Anne shrugged, “have done for as long as I can remember.”

“Top and tailing,” Gilbert found himself mummering. He ran a hand through his hair, tipping it back as he cast a look up to the starry sky. Letting his hand drop and casting his gaze back to Anne, he found himself apologising for his presumptions.

“It’s alright,” Anne shrugged, letting her now empty chip tray fall into a nearby bin. Turning back to him, she continued. “I just hope you don’t think I’m the type of person to try to get with another person while I’m with someone else.”

It took Gilbert a moment to grasp what she was saying, but when he did, he swore his heart stopped beating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realise I said I would be taking a week off then disappeared for much longer, but I've gone straight from exams to moving house ahhh. Only one more chapter left now!!


	8. An End and a Beginning

As Anne sat beside Gilbert at the Creative Writing Society meeting the next Tuesday, she couldn’t help letting her body gravitate towards him. As she wrote, she let her elbow press gently into his arm, When the group turned towards Jake for his reading, she let her knee press into Gilbert’s thigh and couldn’t help but let a smile blossom over her features as Gilbert’s hand came to rest on top of it. It felt like the most natural thing to do and from the way Gilbert’s body responded, she guessed it was the same for him. 

After she had admitted to him those few days ago that she was ‘putting her eggs in his basket’, as Tillie had paraphrased, Gilbert’s housemates had interrupted their conversation, forcing the boy home with them in a chaos of loud conversations and drunken stumbling. Anne had felt her heart pound at the lack of response she was able to get from Gilbert, but within the hour her phone buzzed with a text from him. Shielding the screen from Jerry who was brushing his teeth alongside her, she read the message.

I’m glad I’m not the only one pursuing something between us xxx

Before she could reply, another message popped onto the screen.

Assuming you were talking about me …

After reassuring Gilbert that he was the one she had been talking about, it had been hard to separate Anne from her phone. The pings had even started to irk Ruby, despite her phone going off with texts from Moody almost as often. The constant flow of texts between them had continued until this very meeting, in which Anne couldn’t help but replace the pings of her phone with thumps of her heart as she let their bodies touch. 

As everyone started to pack up their things, Gilbert asked “May I walk you home, Miss Shirley-Cuthbert?” 

Anne finished putting on her jacket before replying. “Of course you can, Mr Blythe.” As she put on her rucksack, she let out a small giggle. “Though historical fiction is a writing task for next week, not a speaking task for now.”

Heading out of The Nook, Gilbert quickly side-stepped around Anne so he could grab the door and hold it open for her. “I require the right mindset for such tasks, Miss Shirley-Cuthbert.” Anne could only roll her eyes as they strode out of the coffee shop. As she started to turn towards the route back to her flat, Gilbert reached out and took her hand, forcing her to come to a stop. “Let’s walk through the nature reserve.”

Anne looked down at their hands as he wound his fingers between hers, trying to halt the blush that spread over her cheeks as heat shot up from the points where their skin touched and spread throughout her body. “But it’s at least ten minutes longer,” she teasingly protested. 

“I just want to spend a bit more time with you.” Gilbert’s confession threatened to leave another blush spreading across Anne’s cheeks, but before it had the chance, she was being pulled in the direction of the nature reserve. 

While they walked, Anne couldn’t help but marvel at the feel of his hand within hers. The gentle rub of his thumb against the back of her hand spread warmth throughout her fingers despite the chill of the air around them and she couldn’t help but laugh every time he raised their entwined hands to make a wild gesture as if telling some fantastical tale. 

As they reached the edge of the reserve and Anne’s bedroom window was in sight, cast in shadow by the setting sun, Gilbert pulled them to a final stop. Anne felt a gentle drop of water against her cheek but let herself ignore it as Gilbert reached for her other hand, bringing the pair face to face.

Anne’s breath hitched, realising what was about to happen, what could have so easily happened on Friday had they not been interrupted. She took a step closer, bringing their bodies in line. Her gaze flickered between his eyes and his lips and she noticed his doing the same. Then, they both moved forward and Anne let her eyes drift closed as she felt the soft touch of his lips against hers. 

They both quickly abandoned their entwined hands, Anne finding her fingers entangled in the hair at the base of Gilbert’s neck whilst she felt herself being pulled closer by firm hands at her waist. Letting her mouth open and exploring the curve of his lips with her tongue, she heard a low hum emanate from Gilbert and the hands at her waist scrunched the fabric there tighter. 

At that moment, Anne felt a large splat of water hit the top of her scalp. With a yelp she jumped backwards and opened her eyes in time to see the deluge start to fall from the skies, the dry paths around them going from yellow to brown as the water quickly penetrated their surface. 

Through the sound of the water hitting the ground around them, she heard Gilbert shout. “Run for it?”

Anne forced herself to nod despite the extra weight of her quickly drenched hair. Then, Gilbert’s hand was intertwined with hers once more and they started to run towards Anne’s building, the sound of their shoes being drowned out by the cacophony of water around them.

Coming to a halt under the canopy in front of Anne’s door, the pair found themselves laughing through laboured breaths. Fishing in the pocket of her soaked jeans, Anne pulled out her key and with a small buzz, they were let into the much drier lobby. 

Once inside, Anne cast a look back at Gilbert. His dark hair was plastered to his forehead and dark marks had formed over the shoulders of his jacket from where the rain had caught them, but he was smiling through it all, smiling directly at her. 

“Hot chocolate?” She found herself asking, to which Gilbert responded with a nod. “And some dry clothes, I think,” she pondered as she looked down over her water darkened clothes.

*

Gilbert had let Anne rinse herself off in the shower first. When she reappeared in her soft joggers and comfy t-shirt with her hair wrapped in a towel, she’d half-expected a comment from Gilbert on her look, but he merely planted a light kiss on her cheek as he passed, one of Matthew’s old t-shirts that Anne used to sleep in in hand.

When Anne returned with two mugs of hot chocolate, she found Gilbert perched on the edge of her bed, scrolling through his phone. 

“Hot chocolate,” Anne declared with a smile. Gilbert shut off his phone and accepted the mug with a smile. 

As Anne sat down beside him on the bed, she had to force herself to look away from the edge of Gilbert’s boxer briefs poking their way out from underneath the t-shirt. It had thankfully remained oversized on Gilbert, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t slightly risky. 

They both took a sip at the same time, but as Anne withdrew the mug from her lips, she earned a small laugh from Gilbert. “What?” She questioned.

“You’ve just got a little bit of hot chocolate on your lips,” he soothed. Interrupting the progress of Anne’s hand towards her lips with a gentle “Wait,” he leaned forwards and clasped Anne’s lips with his own, gently parting them and bringing them together over hers once more before pulling back.

“Did that help?” Anne asked as her eyes opened, casting her gaze down to Gilbert’s chocolate coated lips. 

“Not one bit,” Gilbert admitted as he leaned forward once again and brought his lips to meet Anne’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's this fic all done! I hope you enjoyed it and if you've been reading each chapter as it came out, sorry about the delays, but I hope it was all worth it in the end ❤ Time to check actually finishing a chaptered fic off my list, something I haven't managed since like 2015 😬

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this in like October/November last year and I've finally finished ahhhh. Definitely needed to wait before posting because if there's something I hate it's unfinished chaptered fics :'(


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